Mechanism and Environmental Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in High Temperature Sintering Solidification of Wastes

High-temperature sintering converts solid wastes into ceramic particles, offering an innovative solution for pollution control and a sustainable approach to resource conservation. This method efficiently immobilizes heavy metals, reducing their biological toxicity while minimizing the use of natural resources like clay and shale. As such, it is increasingly recognized as a crucial area for developing harmless, reductive, and resource-based solid waste management strategies. This paper reviews the solidification mechanisms of heavy metals, characterization technologies, and leaching risk assessment methods. The results reveal that further research is needed on the immobilization mechanism of composite and variable heavy metals in glass and crystal phases. Current characterization technologies face challenges, including the limited practicality of chemical methods for certain heavy metals, the need to integrate non-chemical techniques with other technologies, and high costs. Furthermore, improving the alignment between leaching risk assessment and real-world applications, and enhancing environmental and human health risk assessments during product use, are crucial for advancing the closed-loop utilization of solid waste resources.